Two Oscar-nominated true stories, a chilling adaptation of a smash thriller and a gloriously goofy advertising satire are among the noteworthy movies and shows set to depart Netflix in the United States in October. Stream them while you can. (Dates indicate the first day titles are unavailable and are subject to change.)
‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’ (Oct. 1)
“Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers” was one of those notions that seemed so obvious, it was almost shocking it took so long to happen. But this 2019 drama from the director Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”) isn’t of the shallow brand of cradle-to-grave biopic so favored by Hollywood at the moment. Instead, “Neighborhood” is based on an “Esquire” profile of Rogers by Tom Junod — here played, in a somewhat fictionalized form, by the recent Emmy history-maker Matthew Rhys — placing the journalist and his familial angst at the center of the story. What could have been a miscalculation is instead an ingenious framework, underscoring how Rogers’s messages of kindness and acceptance so inspired those around him. (And, obviously, the Oscar-nominated Hanks is wonderful.)
‘Born on the Fourth of July’ (Oct. 1)
Tom Cruise is currently in full campaign mode for the upcoming González Iñárritu film “Digger,” hoping to land his long-elusive Academy Award. But if the early reactions are any indication, we might all be better off staying home and streaming his first Oscar-nominated performance. This 1989 powerhouse signaled the writer and director Oliver Stone’s return to Vietnam three years after sweeping the Oscars with “Platoon”; this time, he tells the true story of Ron Kovic, a bright-eyed patriot whose tour of duty leaves him in a wheelchair and far more cynical about his country. The picture had been in development for more than a decade — Al Pacino was originally attached — but it landed at just the right time for Cruise, whose work as Kovic first capitalizes on his all-American Boy appeal before revealing the darkness and depth under that shiny surface.
‘Gone Girl’ (Oct. 1)
The director David Fincher brings his trademark blend of sleek style, dark humor and shocking violence to this razor-sharp adaptation of the smash novel by Gillian Flynn. Ben Affleck stars as Nick Dunne, an unemployed writer in a stagnant marriage whose wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), disappears under mysterious circumstances. Is Nick, a ne’er-do-well and adulterer whose public behavior is peculiar (to put it mildly), responsible? Fincher delights in slowly unpeeling the onion of this domestic mystery, and Affleck deftly balances the nice-guy exterior and inner turmoil that makes Nick’s true motivations questionable. But the movie belongs to Pike, whose spiky, Oscar-nominated turn is a brilliant study in misdirection.
‘First Reformed’ (Oct. 8)
Paul Schrader has been penning anguished examinations of the role of faith in everyday life for a half-century now, but few have landed with as much raw force as this Oscar-nominated drama. A revelatory Ethan Hawke stars as the Rev. Ernst Toller, who spends his days tending to a mostly empty Protestant church in upstate New York and his nights nursing a bottle of whiskey and scrawling his increasingly desperate ruminations into his journal. When a young, pregnant woman (a warm but haunted Amanda Seyfried) seeks his counsel, afraid of the kind of world she will bring her baby into, it lights a fuse for Rev. Toller. Schrader takes a no-frills approach to his material, which renders the extremity of the closing act all the more affecting; the events of the near-decade since its release have only added to the film’s urgency and power.
‘Detroiters’: Seasons 1-2 (Oct. 16)
Before taking cringe comedy to new heights — or depths, depending on your tolerance level — with “I Think You Should Leave,” Tim Robinson teamed with his longtime pal Sam Richardson (best known for his scene-stealing work as Richard Splett in “Veep”) in this Comedy Central charmer about two dimwitted Detroit advertising executives. (The other creators include Robinson’s fellow “Saturday Night Live” alumni Zach Kanin and Joe Kelly.) While explosively funny, it is also a love letter; Richardson and Robinson are proud Detroit natives, using local locations, crews and actors to bring their unapologetically silly vision of their hometown to life. Keegan-Michael Key, Tim Meadows, Cecily Strong and Jason Sudeikis are among the guest stars.
Also leaving:
“Always, “ “Apollo 13,” “Baby Mama,” “Beginners,” “The Beguiled,” “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” “Blue Thunder,” “Cinderella Man,” “Clueless,” “Fargo,” “The Fifth Element,” “Ghostbusters,” “Ghostbusters: Answer the Call,” “The Good Shepherd,” “High Fidelity,” “High Plains Drifter,” “Inside Man,” “A League of Their Own,” “Nomadland,” “Out of Africa,” “Parenthood,” “Pariah,” “The Professionals,” “Queen & Slim,” “Savages,” “She’s the One,” “Somewhere,” “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” “Talk to Me,” “U-571,” “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” “The Witch” (Oct. 1); “Dawson’s Creek”: Seasons 1-6 (Oct. 3); “Nurse Jackie”: Seasons 1-7 (Oct. 7); “To Die For” (Oct. 8); The “Hunger Games” franchise (Oct. 14); “Boyhood,” “The Room Next Door” (Oct. 19); “Go” (Oct. 20).
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